| Year |
Person |
| 1809 |
Alexander I, Emperor |
| 1815 |
Napoleon
Bonaparte, Emperor |
| 1856 |
Alexander II, Emperor |
| 1894 |
Nicholas II, EmperorWoldemar von
Daehn,Minister State SecretaryFeodor
Heiden,Governor General
|
| 1898 |
Nikolai Bobrikov, Governor
General |
| 1904 |
Eugen Schauman, education
officialSergei Witte, Minister of FinanceViktor d´Hondt, Belgian mathematicianRobert
Hermanson, Professor |
| 1907 |
Santeri Alkio, author,
later Deputy Speaker of the Parliament and Minister |
| 1917 |
Pehr Evind (P.E.) Svinhufvud,
Speaker, later PresidentOskari Tokoi, Senator |
| 1918 |
Carl Gustaf Mannerheim,
Regent, Marshal, later President |
| 1918 |
Friedrich Karl, Prince
of Hessen (Väinö I, King of Finland) |
| 1918 |
K.J.Ståhlberg, Professor,
Speaker, later President |
| 1919 |
K. Castrén, Prime
Minister |
| 1923 |
Kyösti Kallio, Prime
Minister, later President |
| 1936 |
A.K. Cajander, Prime Minister
Rudolf Holsti, Foreign Minister |
| 1941 |
Rolf Witting, Foreign
Minister
Jukka Rangel, Prime Minister |
| 1943 |
Edwin Linkomies, Prime
Minister |
| 1956 |
Urho Kekkonen, President |
| 1959 |
Veikko Vennamo, Member
of Parliament, Party Chairman |
| 1960-l |
Johannes Virolainen, Prime
Minister |
| Year |
Event |
| 1809 |
Alexander I convened the
Diet of Porvoo. |
| 1856 |
Alexander
II came to power. Alexander announced the start of a period of reform. |
| 1860 |
Finland gained its own
currency, the markka. |
| 1863 |
The
Diet convenes again, Language Decree. |
| 1865 |
Municipal
self-governance. |
| 1867 |
Estates
Convention. |
| 1869 |
New
Parliament Act. |
| 1872 |
Language-based
parties gain power, opposite fronts of two estates. |
| 1881 |
Alexander
II assassinated, start of a new period of reaction. |
| 1881 |
Alexander
III came to power. |
| 1891 |
House
of Estates completed. |
| 1894 |
Nicholas
II came to power. |
| 1898 |
Nicholas
Bobrikov appointed Governor General, start of Russification policy. |
| 1900 |
Language
manifesto: Russian adopted as the language of certain public offices. |
| 1904 |
Eugen
Schauman shot Bobrikov to death, the Great Petition. |
| 1905 |
Great
Strike, end of the first period of oppression. |
| 1906 |
Parliament
reform: unicameral Parliament and women's suffrage. Voting age 24 years. |
| 1907 |
The
first parliamentary elections. |
| 1917 |
The
February and October revolutions in Russia. |
| 1917 |
4 December
Svinhufvud presented the Declaration of Independence in Parliament. |
| 1917 |
6 December
the Declaration of Independence was passed. |
| 1918 |
Civil
War, Carl Gustaf Mannerheim as the General of the White Army. Election of
the King. |
| 1920 |
Peace
of Tartu with Soviet Russia. Finland joined the League of Nations. |
| 1922 |
Autonomy
for the Åland Islands. General conscription. |
| 1919-30 |
The
foundations were laid for the legislation of independent Finland. |
| 1930 |
The
1930's were a period of agitation in domestic politics. The socialist-agrarian
alliance started. The Communist Acts of 1930 terminated the activities of
the Communists. IKL, the Patriotic Popular Movement was founded to continue
the activities of the right-wing radical Lapua movement. |
| 1931 |
Parliament House completed. |
| 1932 |
Mäntsälä
rebellion. Prohibition repealed. |
| 1939 |
Winter War started in
November and Parliament moved to Kauhajoki for the period from November
to February. |
| 1940 |
Peace
treaty of Moscow, interim peace. |
| 1941-44 |
Continuation War with
Marshal Mannerheim as the Supreme Commander |
| 1944 |
Voting
age reduced to 21 years. |
| 1944 |
Interim peace treaty,
Lapland War. |
| 1945 |
War
crimes trials. |
| 1947 |
Peace treaty of Paris. |
| 1948 |
Treaty
of Friendship, Co-operation and Mutual Assistance between Finland and the
Soviet Union. |
| 1954 |
Transition to a four-year
legislative period. |
| 1955 |
Finland
joined the UN and the Nordic Council. |
| 1956 |
Porkkala returned to Finland,
general strike. |
| 1956 |
Urho
Kekkonen started his long term of office as President. |
| 1958 |
The "Frost period". |
| 1961 |
The
Note Crisis. |
| 1960 |
The 1960's were a decade
of social reforms and building a welfare state. |
| 1969 |
Voting
age reduced to 20 years. |
| 1972 |
The right to vote given
to 18 year olds. |
| 1975 |
CSCE,
Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, was held in Helsinki. |
| 1987 |
Consultative referendums
were introduced by law. |
| 1989 |
Finland
joined the Council of Europe. |
| 1990 |
The beginning of the 1990's
started a period of deep recession in Finland. |
| 1991 |
The
parliamentary committees were reformed to correspond with the division of
the Ministries. |
| 1992 |
The treaty of Friendship,
Co-operation and Mutual Assistance was annulled. |
| 1995 |
Finland
joined the European Union. |
| 2000 |
On 1 March the new Constitution
of Finland came into force and was delivered to every household. |
|
Important concepts |
| Diet |
The Diet was based on
simultaneous meetings of the four Estates - nobility, clergy, burgesses
and peasants. The meetings of the nobility were open to the heads of noble
families. The other Estates elected their representatives to the Diet. The
Estates were the social classes of the time, internally united by privileges
and rules. A significant proportion of the population did not belong to
any of the Estates. |
| Cabinet
Council |
The
government and supreme court of justice in the Grand Duchy of Finland from
1809 to 1816. Compare with the Senate, Council of State. |
| Senate |
The government and supreme
court of justice in the Grand Duchy of Finland from 1816 to 1917. The Senate
was divided into judicial and financial departments. The judicial department
was replaced by the Supreme Court in 1918, and the Senate (financial department
of the Senate) became the Council of State. Compare with the Cabinet Council,
Council of State. |
| Constitution |
The Constitution is the
practical cornerstone of all legislation and official authority. It contains
regulations on the form of government, the relations between the top organs
of government and the fundamental rights of individuals. No other law can
be in conflict with the Constitution. The new Constitution entered force
on 1 March 2000. It is based on four previous constitutional statutes that
were enacted in the early years of independence. |
| Government
Constitution |
The Government Constitution
used to be a constitutional statute concerning the foundations of the state,
stating e.g. that Finland is a republic. The Government Constitution also
stated that the powers of the State are vested in the people, who are represented
by Parliament in session. |
| Parliament Act |
The Parliament Act used
to be a constitutional statute defining the foundations for parliamentary
procedures, stating e.g. the number of MP's, the methods of processing legislative
proposals and the position of the MP's. |
| Parliamentary session |
Parliament convenes in
session annually on the date decided by Parliament, after which the President
of the Republic declares the session opened. In practice, the parliamentary
session is the working year of Parliament, divided into spring and autumn
sessions. |
| Council of State / Cabinet |
The Council of State or
Cabinet is an organ of general government authority consisting of the Prime
Minister and other Ministers appointed by the President of the Republic.
The members must enjoy the confidence of Parliament. The Council of State
comprises the Prime Minister and a maximum of 17 other Ministers. |
| Legislative period |
The legislative period
is the term of office of the elected Parliament. The legislative period
is divided into annual parliamentary sessions. The legislative period used
to be three years, now it is four years. |
| Committee |
Committees are preparatory
organs in Parliament where the various parliamentary factions are represented
in accordance with their political strength. The Committee will study the
government bill and other issues in detail and prepare a report as an outcome
of its work to serve as the basis for discussion in the plenary session. |